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As I’ve been researching for a new ebook I am writing I come across these terms and I just know they are a bit confusing. What is inbound marketing, what is content marketing, how is content marketing different from content distribution? Which of them do I need? The questions could go on and on..

This post will focus on the differences, so you can appropriately find the answers you are looking for, when seeking information about one of them.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a term coined by Hubspot that refers to marketing to your audience by first getting their permission. People finding you through search is considered having their permission because they are looking for content specific to the keywords they use to search.

Once people are on your site, you present social media and email marketing options to get them to subscribe to your future communication. By using SEO, blogging, social, and email marketing, you build a relationship with your followers and this is believed to naturally turn into sales.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is using content such as blog posts, podcasts, ebooks, infographics and other media to bring visitors to your site, products and services. This often includes many of the same aspects as inbound marketing, though content marketing can focus on simply bringing in traffic, not working on subscribers or social followings.

Content marketing is based on one of the same priniciples of inbound marketing- providing consumers with the information they want/require to build relationships and guide sales decisions.

What is Content Promotion or Content Distribution?

There is some confusion about whether content sharing is called distribution or promotion. While there are CDNs – content distribution networks that help with hosting, the confusion makes sense. For many the first name would be content distribution, but content promotion is growing in popularity. They mean the same thing.

Content promotion refers to sharing new content from your site to those who are most likely to need/want it. It is taking the content and getting it to your target client or customer so that they might read it, and learn more from your company. Generally you’ll see content promotion on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, Google+, and many other social media sites.

Those who specialize in content promotion know that social media is just one of many steps in distributing content for the most reach and exposure.

Each of these strategies are quite similar in some ways and very different in others. I recommend using all of them in your business if you can, especially now that you know the difference.